NYT // Puppet Regime
The electronic dance track video opens with Vladimir Putin, shirtless. He’s wearing a silver Russian Orthodox cross and a Soviet ushanka army hat, and grooving to music videos synced to a supercut of military tanks, aircrafts and explosions. “Launch your special military Opa-op-op-operation! Not invasion of another sovereign nation!” he sings.
Xi Jinping then chimes in: “I’ve been waiting long time. I like the sound. I might get special with Taiwan now.”
President Trump soon joins in: “I’m on a roll. Totally unbound. Maybe I’ll just grab Greenland now.” Soon all three harmonize in matching sunglasses, “Everybody gets their own special military operation!”
The members of this boy band supergroup are not the actual leaders of Russia, China and the United States, of course. They are puppets in an episode of “Puppet Regime,” an Instagram account that delivers 90 seconds of scripted satire with heads of state reimagined as heads of felt. Their high jinks include a mix of one-off parodies of current events, recurring bits and extended musical numbers. One of the more memorable songs had Kim Jong-un hyping his North Korean beach development to the tune of “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys.
The twist: Rather than the work of professional comedians, “Puppet Regime” is written and produced by Eurasia Group, the geopolitical risk consultancy run by Ian Bremmer.
